"Germany! Germany!"; the Syrian Exodus

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Ordinary Germans, not their politicians, have taken the lead in welcomingSyria's refugees

IN THE end, it was not the hell that they came from that mattered. It was the hope their destination inspired. "Germany! Germany!" the refugees chanted on the crowded platform of a Budapest train station, and Germany heard them. Many in the country, like many around the world, had been moved to a new level of compassion for Syria's refugees by pictures of Alan Kurdi, a little boy washed up dead on a Turkish shore. Many more had felt shame as neo-Nazis set fire to some asylum homes. But what mattered most were the goose bumps the nation got as they saw that throng chanting.

For 70 years the Germans have atoned for their dark past and yearned to be seen as good. Hearing their name cried out neither in fear nor in a football stadium but in gratitude and hope touched the public enough to turn them, at least for now, in favour of a Willkommenskultur ("welcome culture"). …

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